House Agriculture Committee backs conservation-easement framework, holds Hoosier Homestead bill for amendment

Indianapolis — The House Agriculture Committee on Oct. 12 advanced legislation to create a voluntary framework for agricultural conservation easements and heard companion proposals to recognize and provide limited protections for long‑running family farms.

Representative Culp presented House Bill 1234, saying the measure “creates a framework for willing farmland owners to donate their conservation easements” and emphasizing that “there's no state funding associated with this. We're not asking for an appropriation to purchase those easements.” The bill would authorize the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) to accept or hold donated easements and allow counties to establish local programs; land trusts would remain an alternative holder, proponents said.

The bill’s supporters told the committee the measure responds to steep farmland losses identified in a state inventory. “The inventory of lost farmland … showed a staggering 345,000 acres were lost in Indiana during that 12 year time,” Representative Culp said. Chris Reynolds, Midwest regional director for American Farmland Trust, testified the state’s inventory and national research show continuing risk to agricultural acreage and that the bill would let Indiana access federal conservation easement funds administered by USDA and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“House Bill 1234 lays the vital groundwork…